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Matthew Lachiusa of Longmeadow is shown with the backdrop of Newtok, Alaska's terrain. The town is sinking because of permafrost melting, making its residents America's first potential "climate refugees."
(Submitted photo)

When representatives from the town of Newtok in Alaska interviewed Matthew P. Lachiusa for their open teaching position, the Longmeadow High School graduate made an offer they couldn't refuse.

He agreed to live there.

There wasn't a long line of candidates for a job at one of the most remote outposts in the United States, and one of Alaska's last villages without modern plumbing.

But Lachiusa's budding teaching career comes with a commitment to service that would make a Peace Corps volunteer proud.

"I wanted to see what I could do to help," said Lachiusa, a 24-year-old history and science teacher who finds himself with a front-row seat to a crisis that will define the urgency of global climate change.

It is predicted that by 2017, the village will be submerged. The last structure to go underwater would be the school where Lachiusa teaches.

It sits on the highest elevation in the town, but that will only delay a historic change the 2007 Longmeadow High graduate knew little about when he arrived in August.

The experience has been eye-opening and sobering, he said.

"I've been told that this is the most traditional (Eskimo) village left in Alaska. It's a stronghold of Yup'ik culture," Lachiusa said of the settlement near Alaska's western coast, not far from the Bering Sea.

"The (river's) edge is getting closer. Last year, we lost 150 feet," he said. "This year, it's slowed a bit, but we just don't know. Next year, we could lose 200 feet."

Increased storm activity would speed the encroachment. Lachiusa says that within the village, nobody disputes what is happening.

Moving the 63 homes might cost $130 million, which would require government intervention. But Newtok was built on self-reliance, and some residents oppose relying on government funding that would come attached with bureaucracy, outside regulation and red tape.

Witness to this crisis is a young educator who attended Earlham College in Richmond, Ind. He learned about Newtok at a job fair, and knew he was entering a raw, challenging environment.

"I've always been interested in environmental changes. I knew about the erosion problem, but it's more than just that," he said. "It's also about when the snow comes."

Historically, Newtok could expect snow by October. When Lachiusa left in December to visit his family in Longmeadow, there was no snow on the ground.

In recorded history, that had never happened, he said.

The changes are affecting not only the land and the residents but local fauna. Residents told media that geese have begun altering migratory patterns that had been unchanged for centuries.

Newtok provides challenges in the best of times.

"It's like a Third World country. The water is poor, and they don't have plumbing," Lachiusa said.

Some plumbing does exist at the Newtok school. That is where Lachiusa teaches middle- and high-school students who are on the verge of becoming part of dubious history as America's first "climate refugees."

They won't be the last.

Most of Alaska's remaining Eskimo villages sit near the coast, and government studies estimate that 90 percent are threatened by climate change.

"It's hard to comprehend," said Lachiusa, who competed in wrestling, cross country and track at Longmeadow High.

What is no longer frozen is the tundra, where melting and softening is changing lifestyles that have endured for centuries. Erosion problems are compounded by increased severity of storms that do occur.

To many climate experts, that's a clearer sign of "global warming" than rising temperatures.

Lachiusa helps mark the water line that measures the melting permafrost. He is not involved with the political stalemate, which is stalling a relocation he says cannot afford delays.

"(Residents) need to evacuate as soon as possible. People are already leaving," Lachiusa said.

He is not. Lachiusa will be back for the 2014-2015 school year at the current site.

Never having planned to settle permanently in Newtok, he will likely relocate on the mainland in 2015. The town's overwhelming issues, however, have caused him to search his conscience for solutions no one has yet found.

"Part of me wants to stay until the end," he said, his voice softening. "I wish I knew what I could do to make a difference. It's such a big issue."